With more than 200,000 inhabitants, Gatineau (municipality) is a city resulting from the amalgamation of the older cities of Gatineau, Hull, Aylmer, Masson-Angers and Buckingham. The majority of hullois and gatinois are francophones; most (but not all) are bilingual.Hull (population 65000, postal codes J8X, J8Y, telephone +1-819-77...) is the original centre of the city, the most densely-populated (but not most populous) area in the Outaouais region and the closest to Ottawa. On the west bank of the Gatineau River and north of the Ottawa (Outaouais) River, Hull is directly opposite Parliament Hill, lowertown Ottawa and the Byward Market.Hull was founded 1800 by Philemon Wright as a lumber camp on the Ottawa River and therefore predates Ottawa, although the town's former principal industry of manufacturing matchsticks historically led to some major fires; little or nothing from 1800 remains in Hull today. The downtown waterfront was once heavily industrialised by Scott and Eddy, the two main paper makers, and the Ottawa river was used to generate hydroelectric power. Currently, the city's largest employer is the federal government with twenty thousand civil servants working in Hull and thousands more who commute to Ontario daily.Aylmer is a small-town suburb directly west of Hull. Gatineau (secteur), the 100000-person suburb for which the amalgamated municipality was named, is located to the east of the Gatineau River. Further downriver is Buckingham, a small rural village. Head further afield and one quickly finds open farmland and the occasional maple sugar shack, a seasonal tradition where trees are tapped and sap distilled to produce Québec's famous maple syrup.Head north from Hull and one quickly arrives in Gatineau Park; the Camp Fortune and Edelweiss ski areas are also north of the city, near Chelsea and Wakefield respectively.